I feel like a total newb asking some of these questions, but I'd rather get it right the first time around and save myself the avoidable coasters. I'm waiting for my new ND-3500A to be delivered in the next few days as well as some TY 8X DVD+R media. I came to the conclusion to get these two items based on what I read here in these forums and the various reviews I could find.

The media ID is supposedly YUDEN000T02 according to Rima's site. From what I've read here, this media can be burned at 16X if I use the right firmware. Is that right firmware the v2.C8 SE release found in this thread, http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=82999, and is this the newest firmware I could be using?

I noticed from the list of supported media the TY CD-R's are not in the list (or I completely missed them). What's the deal with that?

Thanks guys, I got the drive on Friday and already half-way through Saturday I have 3 perfect DVD's and no problems so far with some freebie Newegg DVD-R media that came with the drive. I hope to get my TY media early next week to do some real evaluations of what this drive can do!

No performance problems what-so-ever. I burned a couple YUDEN000T02 DVD+R's the other night with the v2.C8 firmware. I was even able to play a DVD in my 4.5 year old Toshiba SD4109 stand-alone player that I thought would surely have problems. I was more than pleasantly surprised. It'll only play DVD+R's if the booktype is set to DVD-ROM which is fine.

I agree, I've never had a single problem with their media. Any problems burning have been my fault or the particular drive I was using at the time. This NEC loves both the TY CD-R and DVD+R media I've been feeding to it lately and I've yet to burn a coaster. Absolute perfection thus far!